What a bizarre experience, this game. From start to finish it's chock full of shit that is going to sucker punch you.
I'll be discussing the game in full, so there'll be spoilers in this review. If you want a simple suggestion on rather you should play it or not... Don't. Here's why: This game is not a good NTR game. The art is really well-done and even the soundtrack is surprisingly good. The NTR? It's not good, it's painful. This game thrives on showing you how miserable the protagonist is in a world where everyone is significantly stronger than him. The RPGM mechanics are just a vehicle to reiterate this over and over again in every single moment the game can. It repeatedly tells you that the protagonist is weak every at every opportunity it has.
So in essence, if you like well-built, logical NTR this game is not for you. If you like nonsense, "arcade" NTR, it's not for you either because the game has a message it's trying to tell with all the bullshit the protagonist goes through.
If you like sadistic, hard NTR where there is literally no good ending and a shit-ton of rape, this game is for you. If you like mind-break, this game might be for you. Otherwise, don't bother.
That being said, spoilers ahead.
Now, let's cover the good stuff:
++ The characters are all in their own somewhat interesting, except for the one character you should care about(but we'll talk about that later). Tori, the sister character, is imo the strongest and most painful NTR situation of all as her arc is somewhat believable. I liked Ace as a villain and the Demon Dragon as well, to the point where I wish this was telegraphed earlier to the player. Aine's story is just plain fucking sadness and even the MC has a definitive arc made for him. The only issue is that his arc is very long and extended for no apparent reason.
++ The art is amazing and all the sex scenes are great, hands-down some of the best I've seen from a 2DCG game.
++ The pacing is actually really good despite what others complain about. It's true that the game requires a lot of patience and it ends up putting a lot of padding in places where there isn't need, but when you ignore these small issues the game has a good pacing to the story-telling and steadily builds up to the main act of everything going to shit. Aine and Tori in particular have great pacing in their stories as the game steadily builds up to them being fucked in the head from being repeatedly raped. It's not really something "believable" but it's better than some games just straight up going to the excuse of the female characters being too horny.
I've already mentioned the soundtrack so I won't go into detail about it.
Now, the bad:
-- Another review here covers it perfectly well that at some point, you just become apathetic to the misery of the MC. Which is a massive problem, because the whole game's story hinges on you thinking that the MC is going through hell. Personally, I blame the lack of autonomy from your choices and the repeatedly impossible battles you face. Eventually, you just won't care to even try to win anymore. Despair is built upon hope and after just three episodes you will immediately realize that there's literally no reason to hope that the MC will achieve anything. He just gets his ass beaten over and over again for no reason through impossible battles. I get it, the point is to drive across that the protagonist is powerless, but that doesn't really make him miserable, just weak and deserving of what's happening to him. If you don't give me something to believe in, I'll just grow apathetic to everything happening to him.
-- Unfortunately the good characters couldn't carry the remainder of the cast for the life of them. I loved Aine and Tori, and wished for there to be at least a good ending for them if anything, but my brother in Jebediah Christopher, I fucking hated Lotia, Thrash and Assym. Let's talk about each one of them and why they in particular absolutely ruin my experience in this game.
The problem is that all of these characters are crucial to the story and in the moments where they're supposed to shine the most, they just stumble and fall or just do nonsensical stuff that doesn't seem to apply to their characters at all.
Usually, I wouldn't bat an eye at this stuff, but this game clearly wants us to focus on it's story and not just it's porn, so I feel like I'm entitled to comment on all this. Even the Revenge part of the story just feels lacking, where the protagonist doesn't seem to understand that the problem isn't Thrash, but the world itself that is fucked up. I would've loved to see him devolve into an actual demonic character purely driven by his rage against the world itself, not just people like Thrash. This motherfucker doesn't even mention all the other sacks of shit that he crosses with throughout the story. Grey betrays him and he acts like he doesn't care about it, Schrum at least dies but it feels lacking given all the evil shit he did, Ace manages to not only escape but live a peaceful life with his sister, Lotia and Thrash just die instead of being punished for their evils as they should. Games like these don't understand that rage is an incredibly powerful emotion that doesn't just end when you finally kill the person you hate. Lotia's death was supposed to drive the MC into an even greater anger against the Demon Dragon who just used him, but no, he's okay with it.
The whole revenge ending's writing feels critically lacking in logical consistency compared to the rest of the story really, which was already on shoddy grounds.
This is an old-ass game and I feel like I'm just necro-posting with this long as hell review, but given that it's considered one of the greatest NTR games and this is one of the genres I like the most, I felt like I should try to write a bit here. I'll give it praise for at least having the balls to actually be a cruel NTR game where your loved ones are taken from you by force and not just a glorified swinging game.
TL;DR: This game has a crapton of rape, a hard-NTR where the MC is a miserable loser, some nonsensical plotlines that make me want to smash my keyboard and some very good storylines with a couple of interesting characters. If this is your thing, go for it, but I can't in a conscious mind suggest anyone to play this game due to the excessive nature of the whole RPGM stuff.
I like NTR, im a sadistic fuck that enjoy misery that comes for NTR scenarios.
I can see you reading this and looking confused at the score, well at one point the ever increasing misery stoped being exciting and became boring. Imagine that you like sugar and are in a sweets buffet. They start giving you plates of cakes, a good cake. They bring more and more slices of the same cake, always a little bigger and little sweeter, at one point they start bringing you entire cakes of the same taste but super sweet.
There will be a moment in wich you either gonna get sick and stop eating or die from diabetes, this game is NTR diabetes.
The games spends hours upon hours to beat you over the head with the same message "the world is cruel, those in power are cruel, you're worthless and you're going to lose everything important to you" that it becomes just boring repetition.
Then the game has the gal to ask you to grind if you want to see true ending that isnt really worth it, except to see Ice gril call out the stupidest character in the game.
The first time between Trash and Lotia is admitedly pretty hot and is the only scene that i ocasionally go back to but is honestly not worth all the stupid lead up and repetitive scenarios.
I not only dislike this as great ntr concept done wrong but especially as a depressive story done wrong.
One thing that makes a depressive story good is hope. Give the audience enought hope to belive that despite all the shit that has happened and will happen, things can end well. Even if the audience catches up to you cycle of hope and misery (im not gonna say the other word, this isnt danganronppa), they are already hooked to the rolle coaster and are curious to see the end.
Alright mate, are you comfortable? Got a pillow and a drink? Then get ready cause I got a lot to say about this title, and most of it, it's not good.
Dark Hero Party is made to upset you, infuriate you, generate some thought on hopelessness, despair, and remind you that the lords of THIS universe, are definitely not conspiring for the protagonist's happiness (or yours really). In other words, the game sets itself apart from other experiences where the good guys win in the end and get the girls. This paragraph right here, sums up all the good in Dark Hero Party. It's different and wants to show you how it feels, when fate itself is against you. If you have the patience you might "learn"(be influenced by, really) a thing or 2 about right and wrong or good and evil, when playing this game.
Moving to the bad:
- NTR - I'm gonna be brutally honest I don't know shit about NTR, but if you ask me, 90% of what I see marked as NTR these days doesn't qualify as such in my radar. There's no NTR here. The protagonist and the priestess type heroine barely have a connection or anything in common. She is so "stupidly out of his league", that I was actually rooting for the "bad guy" to take her.
I will concede that the sister is well done, and losing someone you love, as in a close relative, also counts as NTR, but the obvious focus of the work (main selling point) is the pink haired girlfriend (sarcastic air quotes on the girlfriend classification).
- The protagonist is a regular guy - What in the actual crap were they( the developers) thinking, when they made the protagonist, the only normal person in the world? Everyone else is super strong, was gifted powers by dragons, and has a dick they makes porn stars envious. Why does he keep comparing himself to people who are quite literally better than him, when those people got to where they are through "magical means" and no effort.
The answer is to piss you (the player) off. Let me put it this way: If my wife cheats/leaves me, to go live with SUPERMAN, I'd tell her, "honey go for it". He is stronger, faster, smarter, better looking, richer, and likely more capable sexually (doubtful) than me. I couldn't even blame her for doing so, and I would not compare myself to SUPERMAN.
You think I could exercise restraint if one of these 2d anime girls, suddenly got out of the screen all lustful and ready ? You would be wrong, and I'm not PC enough(or any amount) to claim otherwise. The stupid protagonist doesn't understand this, and he just cries in his own misery over and over again, like someone did him wrong, when they didn't. Give up buddy, go home find the second regular person of this world and marry her/him/it/other. (In the game's credit this is actually possible, but I only saw it later on).
- The RPG side of things completely disregards basic rules and player satisfaction - It's on purpose, but that is no excuse. You (the protagonist) can't get strong in Dark Hero Party. You can't get good loot in DHP. You can't get good skills in DHP. Even your party members who are competent struggle against enemies. Why? SCALING. What type of scaling? The one that might give you homicidal tendencies. You can't win many fights in DHP, because the enemies have the power of "higher numbers" on their side (They cheat, basically).
Forget any NTR, this right here is the stuff that gets you a one way ticket to a mental health institution. The effect of disregarding a loot/level up cycle, and constant losses HAS an actual effect on the player's psyche. Sure I can take a neutral stance at any fiction, and be fine with everything they throw at me, but in this case I don't want to. I thought I hated the idea of level scaling, ever since I grasped the concept in OBLIVION, but I was wrong in thinking that was the worse that could be done. Straight up cheating in favor of the A.I is apparently a thing.
- The good stuff requires several restarts - Why Lord, Why? They have something (very interesting) to impart to the player, but you will only see it, after quite a bit of repetition and multiple playthroughs. Now please take a look at the two negative factors I mentioned above. Add them to this reality. Now try to picture me playing this game to completion. IT WAS HELL. TORTURE. I WANT (not 1 but) 10 refunds STEAM !!!
In all seriousness this game is designed for someone far more patient and tolerant. I'm old, grumpy and set in my ways. I'm fine with mixed bags, I'm not fine with having to sort through a ton of crap, to get to the good stuff.
Right. I don't recommend this, and I'm gonna go there and say, be very careful with any reviews on the game (this one included) cause people like to parrot the same crap like it was a given truth. The NTR is not the problem here (well, advertising a tag that is not recognized by the player can be a problem, I suppose). The reversing of the formula "the universe is conspiring for your happiness", and the "good stuff" being barred by hours of misery are the problem here.
I could go on, and it would mostly be complaints. No score, but you can definitely call this one an experience (a terrible one). Try it if you feel rebellious. Don't try it, if what I said echoed with you.
This game, honestly isn't bad. I don't normally like NTR games, but I can throw that bias away depending on how things plays out. I will mention spoilers so it'll be tagged if you don't know.
But anyway, the game starts off with one of your typical MCs for these scenarios. This time it's a guy who is constantly considering himself to be weak, and others consider him to be weak as well. Story basically starts off introducing some characters with special powers granted by dragons, then it starts to really kick off the plot. But anyone that looked at the menu noticed a "despair" stat which hints at things to come.
So yeah, the story is one hell of a train ride and I actually applaud it for trying to at least make it interesting. I do still feel like it's flawed, and honestly has even less suspension of belief even ignoring the fantasy elements. The gameplay is also somewhat challenging if you don't know what to do.
But with both it's high points and low points, I'd have to give it a 3 out of 5. And this is coming from someone that normally hates NTR. The flaws stick out too much and if you're like me even hoping for a good ending... There is one depending on your perspective, but that doesn't count as a "good" ending to me.
Man... I thought it's gonna be something like god-tier NTR that gonna crush my soul because I've seen so many people commenting like that.
But nah... like most average NTR this game does not give me any reason to care about these girls they are like a stranger to me, except for the main heroin her route is kinda okay cuz you don't just go straight up to RAPE.
Maybe it's just because I've played NTR RPG 1&2 first (Especially 2) cuz you know why in that game they actually make you care about the heroines and the MC that's the reason why I cry so hard when I saw that true despair of an ending from that game.
Before playing i read all the reviews saying that this game was extremely somber, depressing, rock-bottom deep, etc...
Everything I saw here is an edgy game taking itself way too seriously. With such a dark story frame you expect cunning and deep characters. That's all the contrary. Every protagonists are illogical, reacting unnaccordingly to the severe situation they are in (the MC sister providing herself the drug that'll make her and her friends sex slaves, the nun not taking her escape and the girlfriend not even asking for help when a powerful prince went to the rescue). The worst of all is by far the MC. Gosh, this poor bastard is so lame he doesn't even deserve a face! At a moment in the game, after seeing all his beloved raped and drugged, after being heavily degraded and abused, he has the opportunity to kill or at least neutralize every antagonists without taking a single risk and even consider doing it in front of his nemesis. And what does this ding dong choose to do ? He saves everyone and allow the bad guys to turn all of his girls into perfect cock sleeves while arboring a surprised Pikachu face
After this exact moment I had no more empathy for the MC as he was responsible for his misery. I even had more sympathy for the blond macho and the loli hunter !
Judging from my username, it's obvious i'm a sick degen who like NTR.
But this game... all I can say even for a seasoned NTR lover like myself, get hit pretty hard. This game literally deconstruct everything I expect from a typical NTR eroge to the extent you ponder and connect the storyline to how real life work. The alpha or rich get everything, your dream job, the girl you lust for, the car you can only dream of and so on.
I want to give the this experience a fair rating. but i must say this was a miserable experience to finish. somehow even more so if you want to best/hardest to get ending
The grind,the weak male lead,the rape,the depressing story.
you have to have resistance to girls being raped (it happens a lot is an understatement)
or be the type of person that doesn't mentally/emotionally invested in fiction.
at which point i ask why they are even bothering with games like this
Gameplay
i appreciate the custom art for this,not only being in the sex scenes, but also some battles. i didn't come across many enemies i personally recognized for other games.
which helps a lot in a battle heavy game like this.
the 2 biggest issues i had with battles in this, is how weak the main character is. which adds to how depressing the fights are without other characters.
and that battle experience only is given to characters active in each battle. this means late game you will have low level party members...
Story
Rape if i were to sum it up in 1 word. nothing that can be done about it either, it's the majority of this experience. sure there is a background evil demon lord thing that doesn't matter most of the time.
but this really went overkill for me.
when i say excessive rape. more than once a female character was raped for 24-27 hours strait. and i really mean no breaks men just kept using them nonstop.
which may make you hate certain moments that happen with that in mind.
there are several endings (about 6) 2 of which take even more effort to get than the other 4. so there is at least an ending which has some satisfaction.
Overall
this was a painful experience to play, i am drained of joy and glad it is finally over. but being fair it was an okay experience. the art is probably what kept me going.
personally would recommend skipping this and getting the pictures.
good luck if you decide to try anyway.
Great game the story was incredible and it actually made me feel something which was very unexpected from a game let alone a porn game. The art is nice and the combat is good
This is probably the game that taught me "porn games are still video games". Which is an odd statement, but there's always this sense that porn games are in some way, inferior to regular games. Like the concept that porn acting is worse than regular acting or all that other stuff, because the conceptual focus isn't 'good writing' or 'emotional stuff', but instead, pornography.
Dark Hero Party flipped the script. I have never been the same.
I can't get into why without spoilers, but this is possibly one of the most immersive games I've ever played. To get the best possible experience out of this game, you have to HATE it. You have to absolutely loathe it, ram your head into walls and try to progress and fail every single time, and you need to do this consistently. You are a worm, and you must struggle.
Game thinks it's so smart but it really falls flat. Characters do a lot of nonsense things that really do not fit with their backstories. I suspect that they do this just so the ntr plot can be driven forward, it's ridiculous. Written like a japanese edgy teenager that blames him not getting laid because of inherent human evil or some crap hahahaha
This game is a hidden gem in ntr category. There are multiple endings so you can get good bad and worst ending(if you desire) .
The story (5/5) was really engaging with a little twist towards the end. It is 3-4 hours at max game including the grinding.
Characters behaviour is realistic unlike most games. Loved the mc's sister and his friend.
In a small, unremarkable village you will find a gem like no other. a gem so pure you will be gasping for air. many people have been allured in this small, unremarkable village, and they come out of it as a different person. some say they couldn't stare too long in the brilliance of this gem, while some have endured long enough to finally see what it really is. they lived to tell about this wonderful gem, but only to the ones that they deem worthy.
do you think you have what it takes to stare long enough to endure it or will you just irk and go away at its first shine just like the others? (btw don't play this version. kagura's release is very... liberal... and way too localized. look up for the fan-translation instead. it's title is "thug hero party". I partly blame this release for why some people are giving this a low score.)
This game tears you apart and then puts you back together at the very end.
4 and 6 will stop you from having that crushed soul feeling.
Best advise is to not stop half way in this game, if you start it, FINISH IT! til one of those endings ffs or you will be doomed! lol
I love ntr but this one has its flaws, i felt they didnt let you get used to the relationships before they moved straight to the heavy stuff, could of benefited from some building up.
I am going to avoid spoilers so i'll leave it there.
I rate this 8/10 (would be 10 if more build up and if the MC actually helped his sister a bit more)
Cleared the damn game...everything...I used save editor to speed things up.So it took me like 3 hours maybe 4.Despite its whole lot of mentally abusive,the story is well written.Game even give us an option to take revenge.FUCK,CAN ANYONE HELP ME OUT OF DEPRESSION?
I've played a ton of hrpgs, and this game does have some scenes that are quite hot and very enjoyable. The combat is perfectly fine, decent enough but not really enthralling. The story however, is borderline insulting to me. I don't mind netorare at all and some of my favorite hrpg stories involve netorare and netorase as well.
However, none of those games pretentiously preach to me on a high horse about all people being inherently evil and how mankind doesn't deserve a chance at redemption and the weak, pathetic MC I am thrown in the shoes of blames all of the horrible problems with the world on everyone else when in reality he just lacks a spine. This game's story plays like the deluded cynical fanfiction of an edgy 15 year old Japanese high school boy' written in his composition notebook when he's not busy hating the world for how no girl will fuck him and he's such an "outcast". Dark Hero Party thinks its dark and deep, when in reality its shallow as fuck and just throws out philosophical concepts at random with all the nuance of a Stephenie Meyer novel.
Fuck this game's story for being so on the nose and dime-store Neitsche cynical without really saying anything. When your game is porn but tries to be something more than that and have something to actually say, make me give a shit about the characters first and try not to beat your player over the head with your message you want to get across.
(Edit: I'm coming back to this way later and editing in that Hero Party Must Fall by nitrolith does everything I wanted this game to do and 100x more efficiently with much better characters, and his game's not even half finished yet.)
